Today i tried bleeding my brakes with a hand vacuum pump it really sucks I should have boughten the Motive pressure Bleeder which i will today after i return the other.

I need help what size of hose/tubbing do i need for the brake nipple is it a standard size for all nipple brakes.

thank

If you're coming up to the Rocket City Ramble... there are two Motive Pressure Bleeders available as door prizes.

Don't use the Mity-Vac vacuum thingy. It no worky. The good ole "foot on the pedal thing is best. I use mine for a penis pump now and... it doesn't work for that either

I use the mighty vac on everything in the back yard. I put a little grease on the bleeder threads so it doesn't leak at the threads. Also all I use is dot 5 fluid. If finding a hose the right id diameter for the bleeder is too hard for you then maybe you should take it to a mechanic.

Maybe he was just trying to get a little info.....damn, you don't need to give him shit for it with a that mechanic stuff

Ditch the mityvac for bleeding brakes, although some may have results, it just doesn't do great for bleeding the brakes of your 914. The pressure bleeder is a much better way to do it.

Here's what I do. On early cars with the brake fluid over flow, you've got to clamp the over flow line closed or the air pressure will just blow out the over flow line, and won't pressurize the resevior.

Get a spare cap for the brake fluid resevior.
Get a tire valve & stem.
Drill a hole in the center of the resevior cap, the same size as the hole in a wheel (or measure the narrow part of the tire valve).
Pull the valve stem through the hole.
Remove the plastic screen in the resevior.
Fill the brake resevior completely, not to the fill line, all the way full to the bottom of the tube that holds the plastic screen.
Put on your new modified pressure bleeder cap.
Drain your air tank to 10 psi, for cheaper compressors setting the regulator at 10 psi may not work. If you put too much pressure in the system, you'll blow off the blue lines that connect the supply lines to the resevior, or worse.
Take a clip on air chuck and clip it on your new pressure bleeder cap.
Bleed the brakes, starting at the furthest bleeder from the master cyl, and finish at the bleeder nearest the master cyl.
Pump the pedal hard about ten times and repeat the proceedure.
Do not get brake fluid on painted surfaces it will ruin them.
If the pressure bleeder cap retains pressure, bleed it down before taking it off the resevior.
This works very well, and makes it a one person job.
Replace brake fluid every two years.
Properly discard used brake fluid.

This is what I did recently and it works great! I used a bicycle pump to make sure I didn't use too much pressure.

I like speed bleeders and the old-fashined way, myself.

Manually bleeding works great. Just be sure to have the person in the car press the pedal down (not quite all the way to the floor, or I think you risk damaging the master cylinder in a dry system). Open the valve for a sec and let the brake fluid squirt out (or air if you are starting out dry), and then close the bleeder valve back up. Person in car release brake pedal and start again. Pedal down, open valve, close valve, pedal up. My 10 year old helped me last time after I struggled for a couple hours with the vacuum bleeder.

1/8" clear plastic tubing works well, and you can see the bubbles as you bleed the system. It's available at most hardware, building supply, and pet stores. The Cap'n

dot 5 won't harm paint and water will never get in the system. Never deal with pitted cylinders or stuck pistons again. It is a little spongy though. It doesn't need to be replaced every two years either.
Not sure about how well it works on race cars.

But it does not mix with dot 3/4 and you need ALL of that stuff out of the system before you change over.

Moisture will also settle to the lowest point in the system when using silicone fluid, so if you don't bleed often, moisture can accumulate in your calipers.

Thanks for the help i am going to try the advice given to bleed the brakes next week when i get my pressure bleeder.
Thanks 9146986 for the explanation

I DO NOT recommend DOT5 at all.

GOT my power bleeder today from Autoatlanta. I was excited until I opened the box and this is what i got;
The Pump, one hose with just the clamp and nipple, and an adapter part number 1104.

I am missing the actual tank and the cap for the brake Reservoir

I called them and spoke with Carrie she was so nice and helpful. they are sending the missing parts today or tomorrow

I just picked-up some Wagner DOT 5.1 (from wagners site)

Because of the incompatibility of DOT 5, a higher-temperature-rated version of DOT 4 was developed mainly for the racing community. Somewhat confusingly, this fluid was designated DOT 5.1 even though it is compatible with DOT 2 through DOT 4 fluids. DOT 5.1 is hard to find, and isn't really needed unless you plan to do serious racing where brakes can glow red.

I think it's BP is around 500deg

Perhaps it won't harm your paint finish, but it's there forever; you will never get it off. Only solvent that would remove it that I know of was 1,1,1 Trichloroethylene (and there goes your paint). BTDT.

DOT5 needs to be bled thoroughly since any moisture will separate out and collect into isolated spots. Though I would recommend it regardless of fluid type, you will need to re-bleed the system the next morning to ensure a thorought puging of all air and moisture. If your calipers are so configured, reverse bleeding is also very effective; Push pressurized fluid through the bottom bleeder of the caliper, through the master, and into the reservoir.

Andys

Eric,

What do you recommend?

Regards,

james

I've got a 63 j200 jeep truck that I built in 1979 with front disks and a 1 ton cheby mastercylinder with a 77 grand prix powerbrake assist and dot 5. The cylinders have never gotten any rust or crud in them and water has to get in from the seals and it never does as silicon and water are like opposing magnets. I also use silglide to lubricate the rubber cups on installation. I have never had a problem cleaning dot 5 off. The thing I don't allow in my paint area is armorall it is the most terrible thing around a paint shop.

I really don't spill dot 5 and try to paint over it though so it might be a problem. Most things I paint get really cleaned thoroughly before they get prepped for paint.

The dot 5 cars I drive are: 86 k5 blazer, 90 3/4 ton surb., 86 gt fiero, 88 gt fiero, 79 j10 jeep and the 63 jeep. My wife drives hondas she doesn't need dot 5 as they get tradded in pretty often (every three years) I just put it in the 72 super beetle my son and I are rebuilding. I really don't go through much high water or wash with high pressure washers though. I learned my lesson on motorcycles with high pressure washers.

I did have a slight spongy deal for awhile on the clutch on the 88 fiero and when it's really hot it seems to be affected on the clutch travel but it works ok clutches are hard to bleed in my experience.

On the flushing before it gets put in I use rubbing alcohol and run it through the system with the mityvac and then remove the last bit of alcohol from the reservoir with the mity vac and start pouring in the dot 5 and sucking the alcohol out the bleeders till the dot 5 is pure. If you keep the last part of the fluid you pull out and save it the dot 5 and the alcohlo will seperate and you can skim the bad off the top and save the dot 5 as the first you put in the next job.

Most of the time the whole system is empty and new and you just put the dot 5 in and bleed.

I've been using dot 5 since the 80's and never had any complaints.

If you have speed bleeders installed, you can't use a pressure bleeder.

I used McMarks "long tubes" method to bleed the brakes from dry to solid on my 914, and it worked really well.

Long Tubes is just running some 3/16th tubing from each bleeder nipple back to the master cylinder filler tank. So you will have 4 hoses- one going from each wheel back to the MC. Start pumping the brake pedal. Soon you will see bubbly brake fluid starting to flow up the tubes. Add a little more fluid to the tank to make sure it does not run dry, and pump more. Once you no longer see bubbles in any of the lines, you are done.

Zach

The problem with DOT 5 is, it doesn't play well with the other "regular" (non-silly-cone) fluids. It will cause a "sludge" if the regular fluid is not completely flushed. There is also no long term reports as to how nice the 5.0 will play with your rubber seals over the life time of use.

DOT 4 is what most of us will ever need. DOT 4 is in my 911. DOT 5.1 is basically a high temp regular fluid answer to DOT 5. I don't see any problems with DOT 5.1

I've had dot 5 in my jeep since 1981.

I know the brake guys say not to use dot 5. When I was bored one rainy day I took my 86 k5 to brak-o and dropped 1k on all new everything including replacing the rear lsd gear oil and seals in the axles. They would not give it a lifetime guarantee with dot 5. As soon as the flush time came around it got dot 5 that was 7 years ago. It's a daily driver, part time car trailer hauler. I do only drive it about 8k a year though. I think the time my cars spend setting is the biggest problem for the brakes. It's also the pits on optima batteries.

just got the missing parts from autoatlanta for my power bleeder. Guys please note I got the power bleeder Model 0104 which is the one they have in their catalog it does not bring the right size reservoir cap it brings a tiny one. I am just going to use a spare cap i have and attach a tire valve to it. I will be bleeding my brakes next week will post pics and results of the Bleed.

I finally to get my things together I just drove my 914 from my condo parking garage on the sixth floor with minimal minimal brake pressure and hell of a nice Praking brake. I drove seven miles in nice cold weather for miami at 15-20mph. To my family home and since i am currently staying here i can work on it every day on things that do not cost money (currently looking for a job). I will post detailed pictures of my brake bleeding. I am doing this for the first time.

I want to say, thanks to everyone that had posted on the forum about bleeding brakes. I did it this morning by my self for the first time. It toke me a little over an hour. I used the motiv pressure bleeder worked great until i had a leak on the cap of the reservoir. The last time the brakes were bled was about 7 years ago. You cannot believe the color of the fluid that came out. Now it stops better than ever.

pics from my brake bleeding